The Sridharan’s Connection with UW-Madison Began in the 1960s: Three Generations of Badgers (Part 1 of 2)
Three Generations of Badgers: Malini Lakshmi Krejcarek (l-r), Anjali Padmavathi Sridharan, Dr. Lakshmi Sridharan, Dr. B.N. “Shree” Sridharan, John Henry Krejcarek and Chandini Julia
By Jonathan Gramling
It’s almost out of a romance novel. Bhavani Sridharan and Nagalakshmi Ramaswamy grew up in different parts of India and came half way across the world to find love and a world-class education. Bhavani hails from Bhavani in the north.
“Bhavani is the holy city where the smaller river Bhavani confluences with the larger river Kaveri,” Bhavani explained.
Nagalakshmi came from the city of Nagpur in the south.
And what brought Bhavani — known by his shortened name Shree — and Nagalakshmi — known by her shortened name Lakshmi — together was the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an institution that has played a large role in the lives of three generations of Sridharans.
Madison of the 1960s was a different place than it is now. Shree and Lakshmi were almost like pioneers, setting foot on the UW-Madison campus and paving the way for the several generations of Indians from the subcontinent who came after them.
One of the most difficult adjustments was the weather.
“Oooh, the Wisconsin winters,” Shree exclaimed. “Where I grew up, even in midwinter the weather was in the 60’s and only rarely was in the 50’s when we commiserated with each other complaining how cold it was! Brrrr! Man, was it cold!!”
What was also difficult was the extreme culture shock and being alone for the first time.
“Student life, especially being an international student, had many challenges,” Lakshmi said. “In addition to keeping good grades, a must
for keeping a valid visa status, there are many challenges a new international student face. For me having come from a small town in India, a country which had its independence from the British less than twenty years earlier, I was not exposed to much of the Western culture. Everything was a challenge. The educational system was different, the student culture was different, the lack of availability of vegetarian food or ingredients to make dishes, was a challenge and navigating through a different culture and different traditions was also extremely challenging.
You cannot go to a store and buy the kind of clothing you are familiar with. And above all, you have no friends and can’t connect with your family who are ten thousand miles away, since these were the days of no internet, no zoom, WhatsApp as well as no possibility of direct phone calls and even those calls were unaffordable for students.”
Back in those days, there weren’t the specialized student organizations representing the different Asian countries. There was the International Student Association.
“On the campus, we had the International Students Association that offered opportunities for us to get to know our world,” Lakshmi said. “I had a Chinese colleague and Shree had two Pakistani colleagues. India had fought the Chinese aggression earlier and was at war with Pakistan at that time. Our relationships with these colleagues were not affected by these conflicts. The University offered a forum to debate and understand the conflicts.”
And members of the Madison community also worked to make Madison a welcoming place — a tradition that is still carried on today — to the international students.
“The city had an organization called ‘The Friends of International Students,’” Lakshmi recalled. “The members were helping new students with everything they needed — receiving them at the airport, providing for their transportation needs, offering furniture and kitchen supplies and other things. Some members took the students under their wings making sure they weren’t left alone during holidays and celebrations such as Thanksgiving or Christmas.”
And one of the biggest difficulties to overcome were dietary. The restaurant and grocery scene in Madison in the 1960s was far different than it is today. Back then, everything was geared to European tastes.
“The majority of students from India then were vegetarians,” Shree recalled. “There were no vegetarian pizzas those days. My wife, then single, Lakshmi, was a pure vegetarian — not even eggs were allowed — and arrived on campus and survived, barely, with potato chips and milk for 5-6 days and lost a few pounds.”
The education system also took some adjusting.
“The style of teaching and weekly quizzes were different,” Shree said. In India when I studied, there were exams only at the end of sessions, about 2-3 times a year. Here there were quizzes weekly! So, we had to be on our toes! And there were grades and curves, not just marks.”
But in spite of the challenges, Shree and Lakshmi became absorbed in campus life and the education they received.
“My campus days were filled with many exciting events and happenings and I was on a very sharp learning curve,” Lakshmi said. “I lived in an apartment with three other women, each one of us from a different country, sharing our culture, heritage and traditions. The Vietnam War was raging on, students were getting drafted, creating campus turmoil. I saw the power of the students protests on the campus here and nationwide.”
And what they remember most are the UW-Madison football games.
“My fondest memory is of attending football games where you get to see tens of thousands of people, students, parents and other residents gather to watch the game and socialize,” Lakshmi said.
When Shree firstr came to Madison in the fall, he heard a lot about UW-Madison football.
“The Badgers had just gone to Rose Bowl the previous year and the game and, I understand, ended with an unforgettable super-exciting finish,” Shree said. “The first game after that in the fall was, naturally, sold out. Now that was my first fall in Madison. I wanted to attend the football game and no tickets were available.”
Shree was determined to attend the game and took an unusual route to get there.
Next Issue: Three Generations